Two Men Arrested, Charged With Having Child Porn

LAKELAND | One is a former master sergeant now working as an Orlando theme park guard.The other has no job, deputies say, and spent time online talking to children.

By Matthew PleasantTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | One is a former master sergeant now working as an Orlando theme park guard.The other has no job, deputies say, and spent time online talking to children.Both men were arrested Tuesday by Polk County deputies, charged with downloading numerous images of child porn that Sheriff Grady Judd called "horrific."Thomas Wheeler, 46, of Davenport, retired from the U.S. Air Force, was charged with seven counts of possessing and one count of distributing child porn.Edward Joseph Freiberger, 67, of Clermont, was charged with 60 counts of possessing child porn.The suspects were arrested after deputies searched their homes and computers.Wheeler, who works as a guard at Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom, had numerous images in his home at 540 Fox Loop in Davenport of children between 9 and 11 having sex, deputies said. He admitted to viewing them for several years out of curiosity, deputies said, and because of the children's "innocence."Freiberger, who lives at the Outdoor Resort mobile home park at 9000 U.S. 192, Lot 6, in Clermont, had a large child porn collection on CDs and his computer, deputies said. Some of the images showed children as young as 6 months being sexually battered.He also had 15 high-powered rifles, shotguns and handguns, which deputies removed from his home.Deputies said they found notes with a child's contact information and alcohol preference — Mike's Hard Lemonade. Freiberger had plans to meet the child at the Altamonte Springs Mall.They never actually met, deputies said Freiberger told them, but he admitted to talking sexually to children in chat rooms.Both men are being held at the Polk County Jail. Wheeler's bail is set at $64,000, and Freiberger's at $300,000.

[ Matthew Pleasant can be reached at matthew.pleasant@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. ]